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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

sports women's soccer

Reeling women's soccer team heads for conference road games

IU's Kerri Krawczak defends Paige Maxwell during a game against Ohio State on Sunday at Bill Armstrong Stadium. IU lost 1-0.

The IU women’s soccer team comes off a weekend where it was unable to pick up its first Big Ten win, losing two at Bill Armstrong Stadium by a 1-0 count in each.

Now, the Hoosiers (5-6-0, 0-2-0) will attempt to pick up their first conference win on the road when they play Iowa on Friday and face Minnesota on Sunday.

Iowa (5-5-1, 0-1-1) comes off last weekend after tying Michigan and losing to Michigan State.

As for the Golden Gophers, they enter the weekend as the surprise team in the conference with an 11-1-0, 1-1-0 record, suffering their first lost to the Michigan State Spartans last week.

Despite the slow conference start, IU coach Mick Lyon said he doesn’t believe it’s time to panic.

“We just have to get some points,” he said. “I don’t think we are in desperate mood. If we keep playing at a high level, we have told them that they will get results. We will emphasize to them this weekend that if you want to get results, you’re going to have to put the ball in the back of the net.

“It’s going to be tough against both teams, particularly Minnesota, because it will be their only game in a week.”

Junior midfielder Kristin Arnold agreed with her coach and said the time for the Hoosiers to get back on track is now.

“With two games on the road, we have to start winning games and picking up points in order to keep our hopes up for the Big Ten title,” she said.   

This weekend’s conference contests on the road will also be the first for five Hoosier freshmen, who are likely to start in the hostile Big Ten environments.

Two years ago while playing in Iowa City, Iowa, Arnold recalled how rabid the fans were.

But Lyon said the experience these freshmen had playing games on the road against ranked opponents earlier this season was the groundwork they needed to prepare to play road conference games.

“Playing on the road in Texas early in the year, that’s part of the preparation of what it will be like playing on the road during Big Ten play,” he said. “When we played Texas A&M, their fans weren’t particularly friendly, and we talked about the mental part of the game and to tune it all out. What we’ll do is just get them to focus on what is between the boundary lines of the pitch, that’s all that matters. At A&M it wasn’t ever an issue, and I don’t think it will be an issue at Iowa, Minnesota or anybody.”

Defender Kerri Krawczak, one of those freshman playing in her first conference road battle, said she will play the same as she would during any other game.

“Every game is a big game no matter whether you’re at home or away,” she said. “I think as long as we stay focused and keep our heads in the game, we’ll be fine.”

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